Keto diet not effective, causing blood sugar problems in women

Ketogenic diet or keto diet has been known for its benefits, which could help to shed the extra weight without requiring a strict and extremely limited meal. Some people also found the approach that was effective in improving blood sugar control.

However, the trend may change in the future, especially for women. A new study shows that women do not actually benefit from the low fat, very low carbohydrate diet.

The results presented at Endocrine Society's latest ENDO 2019 meeting in New Orleans, La., Suggest that women are less likely to lose weight when following the keto diet. Researchers also found that such an approach could cause problems in their blood sugar control, EurekAlert reported.

"These results can help explain the discrepancies in this diet's success rate across the sexes," Jesse Cochran, studying lead researcher and a research assistant at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, said in their presentation.

The ketogenic diet was originally introduced to help people with epilepsy. It limits the consumption of carbohydrates and proteins that encourage the body to switch from burning carbohydrates to energy for burning stored fat.

For the latest study, the researchers analyzed how the diet affects both male and female mice. The team first fed the animals with either a ketogenic diet or a regular diet control.

After 15 weeks, the female mice on the keto diet showed no weight changes and had decreased blood sugar control. At the same time, the researchers also tried to remove ovaries from some female mice to see if estrogen plays a role in how the body responds to the ketogenic diet. The results show that mice without ovaries and on keto diet had lower body weight and body fat.

Despite being conducted in an animal study, the team suggested that people should consider meeting a doctor or expert to discuss plans to follow a keto diet, as the same problems found in mice may also occur. in humans.